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At five feet eleven inches, Indian-American model Sonia Dara takes charge of any room she walks in to, whether that room is the site of her photo shoot with Sports Illustrated or a conference room at Elite Model Management in New York for an interview with a reporter or at Harvard, where she’s a sophomore.

Dara, 20, is the first model of South Asian decent ever to be featured in the SI Swimsuit Issue. She signed with Elite Atlanta in her early teens, and since then her star has been rising. She’s been featured in Seventeen and Vogue India, but after the Sports Illustrated shoot, her career is about to go global. Dara talked to Speakeasy about juggling the demands of being a world-class model and an Ivy League student, and shouldering the responsibility of representing the Indian-American community in the modeling world.

The Wall Street Journal: How do you feel about representing the Indian community as a high-profile model?

I realize that being the first Indian-American to pose for SI is somewhat of a responsibility and I do have to be mindful of the way I present myself. Fortunately, the way that I needed to present myself coincides with who I am and with my personality. I posed for these shots as elegantly and as tastefully as possible, and I hope that i made not only my loved ones and friends proud, but also the Indian-Americans who have seen the SI spread.